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Feb 27, 2014 Issue #49 - February/March 2014 - Portlandia By Kate Bennett

British art rockers Wild Beasts may hail from the wilds of Cumbria in the far north of England, but their music has always defied their craggy-landscaped origin and ferocious name: their 2009 breakthrough album Two Dancers and it’s 2011 follow-up Smother were sinuously sophisticated and low-key—barbed tales of sexual longing and self-loathing wrapped in sleek, atmospheric indie rock.

Wild Beasts have discussed in interview their intentions to expand on the hints of electronica evident on Smother, and Present Tense‘s opening track “Wanderlust” sets us up for something very different from what we’ve heard previously from the band. Fat, ominous synths brood over crisp drums in a way that’s reminiscent of Being Boiled-era Human League, before frontman Hayden Thorpe’s distinctive falsetto croon kicks in to remind us which band we’re listening to. Following track “Nature Boy” adds soft tribal beats—an old Wild Beasts mainstay—to this new, buzzing synth sound, but ultimately it’s all a false start for the album.

From third track “Mecca” onwards, the band largely revert back to what they know—back to the sparse, muted intimacy that fans already know so well from Smother. The electronic aspect features marginally more than on previous albums, with the Metronomy-esque synth embellishments on delicately catchy tracks “Sweet Spot” and “A Simple Beautiful Truth,” and the squeaking drones behind closing number “Palace,” but it’s far from the big sound shift the band hinted at before this record’s release. The new sounds are absorbed almost imperceptibly into the Wild Beasts formula, to the extent that listening to the album for the first time, you sense a change but aren’t able to immediately pinpoint exactly what’s different.

You’re left, then, with the sense that Present Tense is the next installment in a (very) gradual progression, rather than a bold reinvention. Plenty of tracks on the album, like the plaintive “Pregnant Pause” and more upbeat “Past Perfect,” would slide in quite comfortably among the songs on Smother, and while Wild Beasts have crafted another beautifully soulful record in Present Tense—with perhaps a little more bite than its predecessor—it does leave the listener wondering how long a band can stick with one mood before it starts to stagnate. (www.wild-beasts.co.uk)

Author rating: 6.5/10